BHUBANESWAR: In a significant development, the Special Task Force (STF) of the Crime Branch on Thursday busted a racket allegedly involved in selling mule bank accounts to cyber frauds and arrested three persons including a native of West Bengal.
Acting on a tip-off, the agency carried out raids in the state capital and arrested the mastermind of the racket - Sk Jamiruddin of West Bengal’s Paschim Medinipur, Sk Hapizul and Sk Jahangir of Olamara in Balasore. Hapizul was residing in Rasulgarh area of the city. STF further carried out raids in Jaleswar, Balasore and Baripada.
Initial investigation suggests the gang operated mainly in the tri-junction of Odisha, Jharkhand and West Bengal spanning Balasore, Mayurbhanj, Purba Medinipur, Paschim Medinipur, East Singhbhum, West Singhbhum and Saraikela districts.
Jamiruddin had engaged 10 to 15 people to open mule bank accounts by providing them Rs 15,000 salary each per month. The people visited various interior areas of the above districts approached financially weak villagers/tribals and lured them to open bank accounts in their names.
They offered Rs 2,000 to each villager to obtain their documents and opened mule bank accounts which were later sold to cyber frauds, sextortion scammers and other criminals based out of Kolkata and other parts of the country. The price offered to the villagers depended on their bargaining capacity, said sources.
“The accused used various social media platforms like WhatsApp groups, Facebook pages and Telegram channels to sell a mule bank account for Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000. Cybercriminals usually stop using a mobile bank account after carrying out a transaction of about Rs 1 lakh. Further probe is continuing,” said STF IG, Jai Narayan Pankaj.